Does this Whale make me look good?

Here's an idea I had, which may - or may not - make an interesting essay for Amerika...

Years ago, when I still sailed sluggishly around, on a rotting plywood trimaran, singlehanded, I chanced to find myself running slowly downwind in The Sea of Cortez. When a pair of monstrously huge Blue Whales surfaced, one on either side of the boat, close enough that I could have walked right off the deck, and on to their backs, for a leisurely promenade.

Imagine that.

How would you feel about that?

This afternoon, I turned on the TV to discover what utterly untrue crap the weather network had to offer about the current state of winter, when I happened to see a documentary about Blue Whales. Except it actually didn't have very much to do with whales. It had much more to do with people, doing things to whales, standing in front of whales, offering opinions about whales, and droning on about how endangered whales were, while skewering every specimen in sight with tags, radios and cameras.

It came to me that people don't actually even notice the world, or life, for what those things are. What they do with these things is see them only as a backdrop, a stage, an accessory, upon which to act-out their own pathetic little dramas and agendas.

Look at any wildlife documentary, and you will - most-likely - see a human face, jabbering on, with an example of wildlife somewhere behind that face. Yakyakyak...wildlife...yakyakyak...what I think is...yakyakyak...what you should think is...yakyakyak...so send money to...yakyakyak...and together we can make a difference...

I ranted and raved to my wife, for a while, about that, while she dutifully listened, and then I observed that, actually, although I probably sounded angry, I actually wasn't angry at all. And I actually wasn't, as much as moved to volubly relate all I now observed about the nature of humans.

You see, humans don't notice the world, for what it is. Or wildlife for what it is. Or life, for what life is. They see only whatever it is, in terms of what it means-to/does-for THEM.

So you come to realize the whole business of 'saving the whales' or saving anything else, is really only about saving whales - or whatever it is - so the human can get to live in a world where whatever it is, still exists, so that the human, itself, can enjoy it. Or look good to others for being associated with it. Or make money from it. Or in some other way, profit.

Why do I prefer raccoons, birds, and rabbits to humans? That's why. That is FUCKING why!

That is why I like David Attenborough's documentaries about wildlife. He only appears on-camera in a handful of scenes in any given episode, and the creatures he explores are captured (on camera) from a relatively unintrusive perspective.

It *is* interesting to see how the programs on TV are mostly about the human perspective on life in comparison to the glaring inhumanity of the animal perspective on life. They (being whoever writes or directs or plans out those programs) assert more differences and disconnections between human and animal than really exist.

people in general tends to like animals they can gain benefit with. If someone eats a dog, people will say he's a monster but they won't care if a bull is killed for consumption. it's bad for the dog because they can have a relationship with them but if they can't be friend with a type of animal, he's not worthy of living.

The number of whale slaughters dropped drastically during world war II.

Thanks homie. Ah, such majesty!

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In related news, I once saw two whales at the beach. I, of course, stopped in my tracks to go and watch them. A film crew were there, and I waved at them. That night they showed it on the news, and everyone saw me waving. im famus nao